own the defences
of their prejudices, to let in the new leaven would be to spoil the old
bread, to give to all men the rights of men would be to swamp for ever
the party which is to him greater than the State. When one thinks of the
one century history of that people, much is seen which accounts for
their extraordinary love of isolation, and their ingrained and
passionate aversion to control; much, too, that draws to them a world of
sympathy; and when one realizes the old President hemmed in once more by
the hurrying tide of civilization, from which his people have fled for
generations--trying to fight both fate and Nature--standing up to stem a
tide as resistless as the eternal sea--one realizes the pathos of the
picture. But this is as another generation may see it. We are now too
close--so close that the meaner details, the blots and flaws, are all
most plainly visible, the corruption, the insincerity, the injustice,
the barbarity--all the unlovely touches that will bye and bye be
forgotten--sponged away by the gentle hand of time, when only the
picturesque will remain."[37]

And now that his sun is setting in the midst of clouds, and the great
ambition of his life lies a ruin before him, and age, disappointment,
and sorrow press heavily upon him, reproach and criticism are silenced.
Compassion and a solemn awe alone fill our hearts.

A late awakening and repentance may not serve to maintain the political
life of a party or a nation; but it is never too late for a human soul
to receive for itself the light that may have been lacking for right
guidance all through the past, and God does not finally withdraw Himself
from one who has ever sincerely called upon His name.

I beg to be allowed to address a word, in conclusion, more especially to
certain of my own countrymen,--among whom I count some of my valued
fellow-workers of the past years. These latter have been very patient
with me at times when I have ventured a word of warning in connection
with the Abolitionist war in which we have together been engaged, and
perhaps they will bear with me now; but whether they will do so or not,
I must speak that which seems to me the truth, that which is laid on my
heart to speak. I refer especially to the temper of mind of those whose
present denunciations of our country are apparently not restrained by
considerations derived from a deeper and calmer view of the whole
situation.

When God's Judgments are in the earth, "the